The subject matter herein relates generally to an interconnect assembly for interconnecting multiple electrical components, and more particularly, to an interconnect assembly having a separable mating interface.
Some electrical systems, such as servers, routers, and data storage systems, utilize electrical connector assemblies for transmitting signals and/or power through the electrical system. One particular application is a backplane and daughtercard application. The electrical connector assemblies are used to interconnect various electrical components together, such as circuit boards (e.g. backplane and daughtercard boards), chip carriers or similar substrates that are circuitized or metallized. The electrical components typically have a grid array of contacts, to which the electrical connector assemblies are connected. The electrical connector assemblies typically include a substrate having contacts arranged on both sides thereof for interfacing with the grid arrays of the electrical components.
However, known electrical connector assemblies are not without disadvantages. For instance, the interfaces typically only include one type of contact, namely signal contacts, which are mated to the electrical components. When it is required to transfer power between the electrical components, a separate connector is used and mated to transfer power between the electrical components. Such a situation complicates mating of the electrical components and increases the overall cost of the system. Therefore, a need exists for an electrical interface assembly that is capable of transferring both signal and power across the mating interface.